Over the last twenty years, the personal care industry has expanded into the realm of hydrophobically modified polymers, mostly in the area of thickening. Such ingredients include modified hydroxethyl cellulose and acrylates/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate.
The rationale for making new polymers containing various alkyl groups is to introduce properties that may not be achieved through unmodified acrylate or acrylamide polymers alone. Despite the continual introduction of new polymeric products, the monomeric quaternaries, fatty amines and fatty alcohols and emollients continue to play a very important role in personal care products. Many products contain at least a small amount of these materials. However, these conditioning agents may build up on substrates such as hair over time, thereby decreasing the hair's volume. Therefore, there is an ongoing need for new products having properties which cannot be achieved by conventional polymers and which do not have the disadvantages associated with currently used monomeric materials.